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Wolfenstein: The New Order is the ninth installment and soft reboot of the Wolfenstein series, developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the semi-sequel to 2009's Wolfenstein (however utilizes very little from the game and drops any direct references to veil or supernatural) and utilizes id Software's proprietary game engine id Tech 5. The game was released on May 20, 2014 for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows.

Unlike previous games, it does not have a multiplayer component.

The game is a single player first-person shooter developed by MachineGames based in Uppsala, Sweden; the studio was acquired by ZeniMax in 2010. Wolfenstein: The New Order was their first developed title. It is the ninth installment in the Wolfenstein series but only the first entirely without the Id Software label. It is developed largely by ex-members of Starbreeze, most known for The Chronicles of Riddick video games series and The Darkness.

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"We are excited to bring a new chapter of Wolfenstein to gamers everywhere; As fans of the series, working on this game is an honour, and our team is driven to create an unforgettable action-adventure experience that will make FPS fans proud."

―Jens Matthies, creative director at MachineGames[src]

The new game was first teased by the Bethesda Softworks twitter feed, before a trailer was exclusively released to GameSpot.com on May 8.

Wolfenstein: The New Order is an action-adventure shooter game played from a first-person perspective. To progress through the story, players battle enemies throughout levels. The game utilizes a health system in which players' health is divided into separate sections that regenerate; if an entire section is lost, players must use a health pack to replenish the missing health.

Players may take cover behind objects during firefights, using it as a tactical advantage and to avoid taking damage from enemies. Players use melee attacks, firearms and explosives to fight enemies, and may run, jump and occasionally swim to navigate through the locations. Melee attacks can be used to silently take down enemies without being detected. Alternatively, players can ambush enemies, which often results in an intense firefight between the two parties.

In combat, a cover system can be used as assistance against enemies. Players have the ability to lean around, over, and under cover, which can be used as a tactical advantage during shootouts and stealth levels. The game gives players a wide variety of weapon options—they can be found on the ground, retrieved from dead enemies, or removed from their stationary position and carried around. Weapon ammunition must be manually retrieved from the ground or from dead enemies. Players have access to a weapon inventory, which allows them to carry as many weapons as they find. With some of these weapons, players have the ability to dual wield, giving them an advantage over enemies by dealing twice as much damage. Players can also customize weapons through the use of upgrades; for example, a rocket launcher can be attached to the side of an assault rifle, and a laser cannon can be transformed into a wire cutting tool.

Prolonging the war, through an unknown source, the Nazis have managed to develop and implement new technologies of extremely advanced levels, enabling them to rapidly turn the tide against the Allies. On the verge of complete Nazi global domination, on July 1946, agent William "B.J." Blazkowicz, accompanied by veteran Scottish pilot Fergus Reid and an inexperienced Private Probst Wyatt III, takes part in a massive Allied raid against a massive fortress on the coast of the Baltic Sea, reported to be the hideout of and weapons laboratory run by his arch nemesis, General Wilhelm "Deathshead" Strasse. After an infiltration attempt gone wrong, the three are cornered and captured by Deathshead and his Super Soldiers, where Blazkowicz is presented with a difficult moral choice: between Fergus and Wyatt, he must pick one of them to sacrifice to his nemesis' sick experiments or he will have everybody in the room killed. After the chosen squadmate's gruesome (albeit offscreen) death, Deathshead sets the room incinerator to burn and kill all of them anyway, though Blazkowicz and the remaining ally manages to work out an escape plan and flee the room before it explodes. In the ensuing explosion, a metal fragment strikes the back of Blazkowicz's head, rendering him paralyzed and vegetative as he plunges into the water below. [1]

Having survived the fall, Blazkowicz is brought to a psychiatric asylum in what used to be Poland, where he remains in a vegetative state, cared for by the asylum's head nurse Anya Oliwa and her parents, who run the facility. Blazkowicz watches as Anya's parents are regularly forced to hand patients over to Nazi authorities, who deem them subhuman for their disabilities. In 1960, fourteen years after Blazkowicz' admission, the Nazis order the asylum to be shut down, killing all the patients and executing Anya's family when they resist. Blazkowicz awakes from his vegetative state as he is about to be executed, killing the extermination squad and escaping the asylum with Anya.[2]

Blazkowicz and Anya drive to her grandparents' farm, where they inform him that Hitler's Germany has won the war by forcing the United States to surrender in 1948 with the use of nuclear weapons, and that the members of the ensuing Resistance were captured. Blazkowicz interrogates a captured officer from the asylum, learning that the top members of the Resistance are imprisoned in Berlin. Anya's grandparents smuggle her and Blazkowicz through a checkpoint in Stettin before they travel to Berlin.[3] On the train, Blazkowicz encounters forced labour camp commandant Frau Engel and her companion Hans "Bubi" Winkle. Engel appears to subject Blazkowicz to a racial purity test, which he seemingly "fails" before the officer reveals it was all just a joke, discarding the results and letting him go. After the encounter with Engel, Blazkowicz and Anya enter into a romantic relationship.

When they arrive in Berlin, Anya helps Blazkowicz break into the prison, where he rescues the teammate he spared fourteen years prior.[4] The survivor leads the two of them to the headquarters of the revived Kreisau Circle led by Caroline Becker, who was left paralyzed due to the gunshot she received from Hans Grosse in 1943.[5]

Inspired by B.J's return, the Resistance step up their activities by attacking a research center in Nazi-occupied London, stealing secret documents and prototype VTOL aircrafts.[6] The documents reveal the Nazis are relying on a heavily improved version of concrete, allowing them to build cities in weeks, but that a saboteur has been tampering with their mixture, causing mold to grow and the material to eventually crumble. Cross-referencing the timeline of the tampering's with a list of resistance fighters detained during those times, the Resistance find a match with Set Roth, a watchmaker who is imprisoned in Frau Engel's forced labour camp in Belica.[7] Blazkowicz infiltrates the camp and meets with Set, who tells him that the Nazis stole and co-opted technology developed by him and a secret society of Jewish scientists to produce the machines that won the war, and offers to help the Resistance in return for the destruction of the labour camp. Blazkowicz agrees and finds a battery that can power a remote control secretly developed by Set, but is captured by Frau Engel, who recognizes him from the train. As Blazkowicz and Set are about to be executed, he secretly hands Set the battery. Set uses the battery to remotely control the camp's largest robot, which then proceeds to disfigure Engel before freeing the two, allowing them to destroy the camp and liberate its prisoners.[8]

With Set's expertise, B.J. and the Kreisau Circle hijack a U-Boat and discover one of the secret society's technological keeps. They use this technology to intercept a top official of a Nazi lunar base, where decryption codes for the U-Boat's nuclear cannons are stored. Blazkowicz kills the official and takes his place, stealing the codes from the lunar base. However, he returns to Earth to find that Frau Engel has raided the Resistance's main hideout, capturing Anya and Set. He evacuates the Resistance hideout with Caroline and the survivor, escaping to the U-Boat.

Equipped with Set's technology, the group raid Deathshead's personal fortress. In the process, Bubi ambushes Blazkowicz only to be viciously executed as Frau Engel watches in horror from a remote camera. After rescuing the captured resistance prisoners and evacuating them, Blazkowicz makes it to the top of the fortress and reaches Deathshead's laboratories. Deathshead greets Blazkowicz, revealing to him that he possesses the brain of the soldier that Blazkowicz chose to die, and puts it in a robot. The robot comes alive and assaults Blazkowicz, who defeats it and puts his friend to rest by destroying the brain. Deathshead then attacks Blazkowicz in a larger robot.

Blazkowicz defeats the robot and drags Deathshead out of its cockpit. However, as he is about to execute Deathshead, the general reveals a hidden grenade that explodes, killing Deathshead and mauls Blazkowicz. As a gravely wounded Blazkowicz crawls towards safety, he watches Caroline, Set and Anya evacuate the prisoners from the beachhead below.[9] He likens Anya holding an electric lantern to the Statue of Liberty, recalling the famous lines of The New Colossus before the survivor requests permission to destroy the fortress with the U-Boat's nuclear cannons. Blazkowicz confirms the order, and the screen cuts to black.

After the credits, an explosion is heard followed up by thunder and lighting as a helicopter is heard approaching.

A standalone expansion was announced by Bethesda Softworks on March 6, 2015 titled Wolfenstein: The Old Blood. It follows B.J. Blazkowicz shortly before the events of The New Order, as he returns to Castle Wolfenstein to retrieve a folder containing the location of Deathshead's Compound, from Helga Von Schabbs.

During September 2015, Alicja Bachleda-Curus, the Polish actress who played Anya Oliwa had "accidentally" revealed that she and MachineGames are working on a sequel slated for release in 2017. While she didn't explicitly say which game, it is presumed to be another Wolfenstein due to The New Order being the first and so far only game (aside from The Old Blood, which is an immediate prequel) the studio have developed that has possibilities for a continuity of canon. Neither Bethesda Softworks nor MachineGames had anything to say officially at the time.

On June 13, 2016, Bethesda teases the game called "Wolfenstein: New Colossus" at the begin of their E3 conference. It was unknown if it'd be a sequel or another expansion campaign like The Old Blood . Later Amazon Germany shown the game Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus in their listings.

At E3 2017 Bethesda Conference, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus was officially announced, revealed and Bethesda published a trailer, which was shown at the conference. The conference presentation ended with a release date set for October 27th, 2017.

William J. Blazkowicz - Protagonist, famous American hero and OSA agent. After a failed attempt at stopping his arch-nemesis Deathshead and turning the tide of war in 1946, Blazkowicz was caught in an accident at Deathshead 's Baltic fortress and was stuck in a vegetative state for 14 years. After waking from his catatonia in 1960 and shocked at the state of the world after the enemy's victory, a determined Blazkowicz sets out to liberate the world from the Nazi regime alongside his newfound friends, rivals and love interest.

Wilhelm "Deathshead" Strasse - Main Antagonist, Blazkowicz's long time nemesis, Nazi General and scientist infamous for his wicked and inhumane experiments. After surviving the destruction of his zeppelin in 1944, he continued to focus on science, developing technologies far ahead of the time thanks to the newfound Da'at Yichud researches. Deathshead's machinations and inventions have helped turning the tide of the war in the Third Reich's favor, allowing them to conquer the world virtually uncontested.

Anya Oliwa - A Polish nurse who took care of Blazkowicz during his 14 years of catatonia, during which both people came to hold affections for one another. Inducted into the revitalized Kreisau Circle as an intelligence officer.

Caroline Becker - Leader of the old Kreisau Circle in Isenstadt. After surviving the gunshot by Hans Grosse in 1944, Caroline managed to stay alive, albeit now a paraplegic, and sought to rebuild her former resistance in an effort to fight against the Nazi dominion.

Irene Engel - League of German Girls leader and Lieuteunant Colonel of the SS. She is the game's secondary antagonist and serves as the commandant of Camp Belica, a concentration/death camp in annexed Croatia. First meeting Blazkowicz on a night train to Berlin, it was not until his infiltration of her camp did she really take notice of him. Horribly maimed during Blazkowicz and Set Roth's prison break, she is not heard from again until the very final level. She meets her death in the second game .

Hans "Bubi" Winkle - The sadistic "lovely companion" of Frau Engel despite the woman being nearly three times his age. Despite coming from a prestigious family, Bubi had a rocky childhood where his underperformance and eventual employment at Belica were constant sources of disappointment for his parents.

Probst Wyatt III - Former U.S. Marine rookie and current (if saved) officer of the revitalized Kreisau Circle. Holds great admiration for Blazkowicz even after the timeskip and is a friend of J. If saved during the Prologue, Wyatt will teach Blazkowicz how to pick locks and additional Armor Upgrades will spawn as collectibles during the timeline.

Fergus Reid - A Scottish veteran pilot and long time friend of Blazkowicz. If saved during the Prologue, Fergus will teach Blazkowicz how to hotwire certain mechanical locks and additional Health Upgrades will spawn as collectibles during the timeline. He will also introduce Tekla to the new resistance after the timeskip.

J (Wyatt Timeline) - An American guitarist who joins the resistance after the Nazi war machine dropped a nuclear bomb onto his native soil.

Tekla (Fergus Timeline) - An eccentric female resistance member who is very concerned with equations and results, and is constantly trying to maintain her "model" and finding reactions to problems.

Klaus Kreutz - A former Nazi who defected from their ranks when the regime ordered the execution of his wife and child. Now part of the resistance, he also acts as the guardian and caretaker of Max Hass.

Max Hass - A strangely childish hulk of a man with a deformed cranium who was found on the street and taken care of by Klaus Kreutz. Max is a mentally-impaired pacifist, and is easily frightened by the sights and sounds of suffering and violence, but will not hesitate to use his brute strength to protect those precious to him.

Bobby Bram - An English resistance member who lost his wife during the London occupation by the Nazis. He is deeply depressed yet holds a strong resentment for the Third Reich and is willing to sacrifice himself it it means the destruction of the regime.

Set Roth - A Jewish watchmaker and secret retainer of an ancient collective - the Da'at Yichud. After being rescued from a concentration camp, Roth joined the resistance and provided them with some valuable technologies and intel that contributes a large part to the party's eventual success against the Nazi war machine.

Bombate - A Namibian resistance member who participated in assaults in Africa against the Nazi army, but was captured and sent to the labor camps. He became part of the Kreisau resistance after being freed from enslavement.

One of the trailers makes a nod to the fact that the game remakes the Wolfenstein universe, and rewrites the series history.[10]

Blazkowicz's appearance in The New Order looks very similar to the 2D version of himself from Wolfenstein 3D. This is because MachineGames wanted B.J. to look and feel like the original, but with a current-generation look to him.

An 8-bit "Get Psyched!" flashes on to the screen right before the opening cutscene, which is homage to the loading screens from Wolfenstein 3D.

During the opening scenes of the prologue, and later in the game, B.J. has a "dream" of another life where the war has ended, and he was able to return home, get married and have children. This is a foreshadowing to his twins and Anya.

Caroline Becker survived the fatal shot in Wolfenstein, though it left her paralyzed. She still runs the Kreisau Circle as of 1960.

The game begins with the siege of a stronghold, a key feature in most Wolfenstein games.

Collectible treasures and secrets also returned from Wolfenstein 3D.

Wolfenstein: The New Order has a numeric health and armour system like Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Blazkowicz no longer regenerates to full health like in Wolfenstein 2009, instead his total hitpoints are divided into portions of 20, which will slowly heal up unless completely depleted. Portions of health that are completely depleted can only be restored via health pickups, similar to the older titles of the series.

When Blazkowicz is being ferried to London Nautica, the key chain in ignitor looks like Rocket Launcher in Quake III Arena.

Like in Quake III Arena, it is possible to overheal to have more than the player's current maximum health, but any extra hitpoints will slowly decay.

The first level ofWolfenstein 3D is playable as an easter egg during the early portions of the game. Dubbed Nightmare, it can be accessed by sleeping on the mattress hidden in the attic of the Kreisau base. Completing the Nightmare level will cause the splash screen of the old game to appear on the wall next to the bed.[11]

Deathshead shouts "Die, Allied Schweinehund!" at B.J, which is a direct reference to Hitler's final encounter of Episode 3 in Wolfenstein 3D. In addition, Deathshead's mechanical suit is very similar to Mecha Hitler from Wolfenstein 3D and also uses four chainguns.

While swimming through the sewers B.J. recounts his trek through Deathshead's X-Lab. Though the date has been changed to when B.J. was A year older.

Wolfenstein: The New Order is both a loose continuation (as it takes place after all previous installments) and a reboot of the series (as it features new situations, settings, and story within an alternate timeline). While it partially aknowledes elements of older games it also ignored or changes their context as well, removing any references to supernatural. The followup prequel The Old Blood is a retelling and reimagining of first act of RTCW, replacing much of that game.

Unlike previous installments, The New Order is surprisingly devoid of supernatural or occult elements staple to the series, and features a heavy presence of technology and science instead.

Unlike other previous Wolfenstein games produced by ID Software, Wolfenstein: The New Order is not entirely a First-person shooter game, but contains more elements of action adventure. As seen in multiple levels, Blazkowicz must rely on stealth infiltration, and is armed with minimum weaponry; also numbers of enemies are severely shrunk, comparing with Wolfenstein (2009).

The alarm system makes a comeback in The New Order, though rather than causing the mission to fail, this will only make the game slightly harder at that point due to the arrival of reinforcements.

German characters, especially the Nazis, now speak German rather than English with a German accent.

Dual-wielding returns from Return to Castle Wolfenstein, this time extending to assault rifles and even certain shotguns.

Blazkowicz now speaks and occasionally provides inner monologues during gameplay and cut-scenes, in stark contrast to the previous games where he was mostly silent.

Pre-ordering the game grants players with unique codes for the Doom 4 beta as well as some genuine-grade special cosmetic items for the Heavy class of Team Fortress 2 on PC. These vanity items were later released in regular grade to the public.

The second trailer for the game shows that the Nazis have accomplished many scientific advancements, such as the nuclear bomb and space travel. In the real timeline, the Nazi atomic bomb project was primitive and largely fruitless. Its progress was slowed further by the Heroes of the Telemark, who raided the German Heavy Water plant in occupied Norway. However the Nazis were the world leaders in rocket technology, which was keenly sought after by the Americans, the British and the USSR during the closing chapters of the Second World War. It is worth noting that the Cold War space programs of both the US and (to a lesser extent) the USSR were assisted by captured Nazi rocket scientists that had been pardoned and allowed to continue their work for either their US or the Soviet paymasters.

According to the "Boom Boom" trailer, the Nazis demolished the presidential monument at Mount Rushmore.

According to the "Nowhere To Run" trailer, the Nazis rig the World Cup by shooting enemy players instead of giving penalty points. Coincidentally, 2 months after the game been released, German 7-1 Brazil happened.

The New Order's soundtrack contains German parodies of popular songs during the 1960s, published under the label of Neumond Records.

The designs for all the Nazi's superweapons were designed by Deathshead according to the schematics found in the secrets caches of the Da'at Yichud scattered all over the world. The group is influenced by Jewish culture, which is to be believed the source of the Da'at Yichud core of members.

Wolfenstein: The New Order was released to mostly positive reviews. Metacritic calculated an average score of 81 out of 100 based on 23 reviews for the Windows version,[12] and 79 out of 100 based on 18 reviews for the Xbox One version and 73 reviews for the PlayStation 4 version. GameRankings assigned it an average review score of 84% based on 12 reviews for the Windows version, 82% based on 17 reviews for the Xbox One version, and 81% based on 48 reviews for the PlayStation 4 version. Reviewers liked the game's concept, narrative and combat mechanics.

In the midst of World War II, the Nazis drop an atomic bomb on Manhattan, settling their victory. Reviewers praised the use of this alternative history within the game.

Most critics and commentators shared the opinion that The New Order was better than they were expecting from a Wolfenstein game.[13][14][15] Jon Blyth of Official Xbox Magazine called the game an "unexpected gem",[16] while ABC's Walker said that he "never expected [to] enjoy [the game] so much".[17]The Sydney Morning Herald's Hill said that the game ensures that the series is "a relevant force again",[18] while Destructoid's Carter felt that the game "does wonders for essentially rebooting the franchise without rendering all the previous stories moot".[19] Edge agreed, calling the developers "brave".

Within a week of its release, Wolfenstein: The New Order became the second-best selling game of 2014 in the United Kingdom, behind Titanfall. The game also topped the weekly UK charts in its first week, totaling a quarter of all games sold in the region and accounting for 36% of revenue. According to MCV, it was the 22nd best-selling game of 2014 in the UK.In the United States, the game was the fourth and seventh best-selling game of May and June 2014, respectively. The game was also ranked the fifth and fourteenth best-selling digital PlayStation 4 game of May and June 2014, respectively. In its first week in Japan, the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 versions of the game were placed on the charts at 15th and 8th, respectively, collectively selling over 11,000 units. By June 2014, the game had sold almost 400,000 physical units in Europe, equating to over €21 million.[20]